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To Duck or Not to Duck
To Duck .... or Not to Duck is a 1943 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones and featuring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. Plot Elmer Fudd is hunting ducks with his dog Laramore. He shoots Daffy Duck from the sky and apologizes saying that he is "a great sportsman." Daffy says he wouldn't be so tough without his hunting equipment and challenges Elmer to a "fair" fight. Elmer is unaware that he is led to a boxing ring surrounded by many duck spectators. The referee of the fight is also a duck. The odds are clearly against Elmer since the referee laughs while announcing his name followed by boos from the crowd, with only Laramore cheering from a separate stand, for which he is knocked down by brickbats thrown at him by the duck spectators. The referee starts complimenting Daffy, like Daffy "Good to His Mother" Duck. Before the match starts, the referee exhorts the two opponents to "fight clean", winking to the audience, who collectively shout, "Oh, brother!", and calls for "no rough stuff -- none of THIS! Or THIS! Or like SO!", each time demonstrating an illegal move on Elmer and knocking him silly. Daffy, in turn, picks up where the referee left off, asking, "You mean none of THIS? Or THIS?", manhandling (or duckhandling) Elmer similarly every time. Daffy clobbers Elmer with a hammer as the bell is rung. Elmer falls to the mat and the referee provides a quick ten-count. He declares Daffy the winner and new champion. Perplexed, Elmer protests, "I'm not the one to compwain, Mr. Wefewee, but I thought you said no wough stuff! none of THIS! Or THIS! Or wike SO!", giving it back to both the referee and Daffy in extreme exasperation. Availability *VHS - Cartoon Moviestars: Daffy Duck and Company *VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 12: Porky and Daffy (1995 Turner dubbed version) *DVD - TCM Spotlight: Errol Flynn Adventures (1995 Turner dubbed version, added as a bonus) *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6, Disc 1 *DVD - Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 6, Disc 1 Notes * This is the first cartoon to feature both Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd together. * The duck referee is intended to be the same plump and jovial referee from "Count Me Out". In "Count Me Out", the referee was voiced by Tex Avery, while in "To Duck Or Not To Duck", the referee is voiced by Mel Blanc, since Avery had already left Warner Bros. for MGM at the time the latter cartoon was made. The referee would later appear in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode, "Furgo", where he is named Ducky Wheeze and voiced by Billy West. * The cartoon has fallen into the public domain, as United Artists (successor-in-interest to Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew the copyright in time. It is found on many VHS tapes of public domain cartoons, with very badly faded colors (and the a.a.p. logo intact) AND with the 1952-53 blue ribbon for unknown reasons, that must be a damaged print. * It has been fully restored on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 and the restored version is still able to freely distribute due to the public domain status. * It is the earliest-released color Looney Tune to have these each of these two distinctions: to fall into the public domain, and to have its original opening and closing titles survive (the two color Looney Tunes that preceded it, "The Hep Cat" and "My Favorite Duck", remain under copyright, and were given Blue Ribbon reissues; both have been restored on DVD, but each still feature the Blue Ribbon titles) * Despite not appearing in the cartoon, Porky appears in the opening and the ending, in which he comes out of the Looney Tunes drum to say "T-T-T-That's all folks!". Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons Category:Elmer Fudd Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:1943 Category:Public domain films Category:Shorts Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with layouts by John McGrew Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Gene Fleury Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Bernyce Polifka Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Boxing Cartoons Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package